Remapping the Illegitimate Border (Countering the Legacy of the War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent), an installation piece by artist Dylan Miner in collaboration with Indigenous and Latino Youth of Waawayeyaattanong, the Autonomous Windsor-Detroit Borderlands, at the Art Gallery of Windsor during the Border Cultures: Part One (homes, land) exhibition. (Photo: Frank Piccolo)

Recommender Grants for Writers program moves online

Applications for this third-party recommender program are now submitted using Nova, OAC’s online application system. Three other third-party recommender programs – Exhibition Assistance, Indigenous Visual Artists’ Materials and Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators – moved online earlier this summer.

About Recommender Grants for Writers

This program provides grants of $1,500 to $5,000 to Ontario-based writers to assist in the creation of new works.

Recommender Grants for Writers is a third-party recommender program. This means that when you’re applying, you select one of the literary/publishing organizations OAC has designated as a “recommender organization” to assess your application. Recommender organizations then submit their grant selections to OAC.

What's new?

1. This application process is now done entirely online within Nova, rather than on paper.

If you would like to apply for an OAC grant, and you have never applied before, you will need to start by creating and activating a user profile in Nova. For full instructions on this, see the Nova User Guide.

If you have applied to OAC before, but you have never used Nova, OAC has created a basic user profile for you, using the email address from your last OAC application. If this applies to you, please follow these instructions:

Follow the instructions to create a new password and activate your user profile. For full instructions on this, see the Nova User Guide.

If you have applied to OAC before using Nova, simply go to the Funding Opportunities section of your dashboard to find the program.

2. Applicants may now apply to a maximum of 10 recommender organizations.

Recommender organizations participate in this program on a volunteer basis, and do not receive any compensation for this administrative work. So, to help manage their workload, applicants can now submit applications to a maximum of 10 literary/publishing organizations per year.

3. Recommender organizations may now choose their own application deadline.

Previously, recommender organizations accepted applications until the end of January, or until they had fully allocated their granting budget – whichever came first.

To help recommender organizations manage their workload and respond to applicants in a timely manner, each one now has the option to set a specific application deadline. After an organization’s deadline has passed, you will not be able to submit an application to them.

Recommender organizations also have the option to accept applications until January 16, 2019, or until they fully allocate their budget – whichever comes first. Many recommender organizations fully allocate their budgets before this date, so writers are encouraged to submit their applications early.

For more than 50 years, OAC has played a vital role in promoting and assisting the development of the arts for the enjoyment and benefit of Ontarians. In 2017-18, the Ontario Arts Council invested $58.7 million in 231 communities across Ontario through 2,294 grants to individual artists and 1,474 grants to organizations.